One of the biggest complaints Final Fantasy XIV players have is that the housing market is so oversaturated with buyers that it is almost impossible to buy private housing. Soon, that problem will be slightly alleviated, although the scale on which that problem will decrease is yet to be seen.
During the Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter from the Producers, director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida told players they are getting new wards in every World. There will be six normal wards, and six subdivisions, meaning that in each World, approximately 1,800 new plots will be added.
What Yoshi-P didn’t elaborate on was the distribution in those wards between private plots and Free Company housing. This has also been a point of contention in the past because players felt that too many people were making ghost FCs to gain housing, instead of just having enough player housing so that the competition isn’t so intense between individual players.
Based on what he said in the Live Letter, and what was translated by the FFXIV Discord, more information on which wards will be private housing and which ones will be FC housing is coming in the next Live Letter, which will serve as Patch 6.3’s second part.
Right now, there is still no limit on how long a player can be logged out of the game before their house is destroyed either. This was a result of the pandemic, and the re-implementation of the login requirement was extended when the war broke out in Ukraine. This has made it incredibly hard for current players to get housing, especially when some wards are still full of grandfathered-in players who were able to buy multiple houses before restrictions were added.
Although 1,800 new plots might somewhat alleviate the problem, fans aren’t confident that this will completely solve the problem, especially if developers add too much FC housing and not enough player housing. Fans are hoping that the majority of these plots are for individual players and not half-and-half like it was when Empyrium was added.
More information will be revealed during Patch 6.3 Live Letter part two. Because the release date of Patch 6.3 is set for early January, players can expect more information in the next Live Letter in late December.